While those friendly to the amendment were laboring thus earnestly, the politicians held themselves aloof and attended strictly to "mending their own fences." After the act had passed the legislature, it was found that almost every prominent man in the State was friendly to the amendment. The bench and bar were especially favorable, while three-fourths of the press and a large majority of the clergy warmly espoused the cause. Leading politicians told the women to go ahead and organize, and they would assist in the latter part of the canvass. Thayer and Clay county Republicans endorsed woman suffrage in their platform, while Franklin county delegates were instructed to vote for no one who was not in favor of the amendment.

Previous to the session of the Republican State Convention, great hopes were entertained that this body would put an endorsement of the amendment in its platform, as a majority of the delegates were personally pledged to vote for such a measure. But the committee on resolutions was managed by a man who feared that such endorsement would hurt the party, and the suffrage resolution which was handed in, was not reported with the rest. On the plea of time being precious, the convention was maneuvered to pass a resolution that the report of the committee should not be discussed. The report was brought in at the last moment of the convention, and adopted as previously arranged, and the convention was adjourned, everybody wondering why a resolution relative to the amendment had not been presented. The Republican leaders feared that their party was endangered by the passage of the bill by the legislature, for it was very largely carried by Republican votes, and while individually friendly, they almost to a man avoided the subject.

As the canvass progressed, it was comical to note how shy the politicians fought of the women to whom they had promised assistance. Judge O. P. Mason, who had agreed to give ten lectures for the amendment, and whose advocacy would have had immense weight, engaged to speak for the Republican party, and at every place but one, the managers stipulated that he should be silent on the amendment. Of the vast array of Republican speakers, had even those who had expressed themselves in favor of the amendment advocated it intelligently and earnestly, the result would have been different.

Due credit must be given to ex-United States Senator Tipton, Judge W. H. Morris, and a few others who lectured outside of their own counties, as well as at home, while David Butler, candidate for senator from Pawnee county, E. M. Correll of Hebron, C. C. Chapin of Riverton, Judge A. P. Yocum of Hastings, and doubtless a few others, regardless of their political prospects, advocated the cause of woman along with their own. The women of Nebraska will always cherish the memory of the enthusiastic young student from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who spent some months of the campaign in Nebraska, giving lavishly of his means and talents to aid the cause. Wilder M. Wooster was a bright, logical speaker, and his death, which occurred in 1885, cost the world a promising and conscientious journalist.

Towards the close of the campaign it became evident that the saloon element was determined to defeat the amendment. The organ of the Brewers' Association sent out its orders to every saloon, bills posted in conspicuous places by friends of the amendment mysteriously disappeared, or were covered by others of an opposite character, and the greatest pains was taken to excite the antagonism of foreigners by representing to them that woman suffrage meant prohibition. On the other hand, the temperance advocates were by no means a unit for its support.

The morning dawned bright and clear on November 5, 1882. The most casual observer would have seen that some unusual interest was commanding attention. Everything wore a holiday appearance. Polling places were gaily decorated; banners floated to the breeze, bearing suggestive mottoes: "Are Women Citizens?" "Taxation Without Representation is Tyranny!" "Governments Derive their Just Powers from the Consent of the Governed." "Equality before the Law," etc., etc. Under pavilions, or in adjoining rooms, or in the very shadow of the ballot-box, women presided at well-filled tables, serving refreshments to the voters, and handing to those who would take them, tickets bearing the words: "For Constitutional Amendment Relating to Right of Suffrage," while the national colors floated alike over governing and governed; alike over women working and pleading for their rights as citizens, and men who were selling woman's birth-right for a glass of beer or a vote. It looked like a holiday picnic—the well-dressed people, the flowers, the badges, and the flags; but the tragic events of that day would fill a volume.

The conservative joined hands with the vicious, the egotist with the ignorant, the demagogue with the venial, and when the sun set, Nebraska's opportunity to do the act of simple justice was gone—lost by a vote of 50,693 to 25,756—so the record gives it. But it must not be forgotten that many tickets were fraudulently printed, and that tickets which contained no mention of the amendment were counted against it, as also were tickets having any technical defect or omission; for instance, tickets having the abbreviated form, "For the Amendment," were counted against it. It will always remain an open question whether the amendment did not, after all, receive an actual majority of all votes cast upon that question. In this new State, burdened with the duties incident to the development of a new country, the women had done what women might do to secure their rights, but their hour had not yet struck.

On the following evening, the speakers of the National Association, who still remained in the State held a meeting[473] at the opera-house in Omaha, at which the addresses were in the main congratulatory for the large vote, making proportionally the largest ever cast for woman's ballot.

While history must perforce be silent concerning the efforts and sacrifices of the many, a word will be expected in regard to some of the principal actors. Looking back on these two eventful years, not a woman who took part in that struggle would wish to have been inactive in that heroic hour. It is an inspiration and an ennobling of all the faculties that they have once been lifted above all personal aims and transient interests; and for all who caught the true meaning of the moment, life can never again touch the low level of indifference. The officers of the State Association who were most active in the canvass are here mentioned with a word as to their subsequent efforts:

Mrs. Harriet S. Brooks, whose services have so often been referred to, after working in three States for the privileges of citizenship, is devoting herself to the congenial study of sociology, and her able pen still does service.

Ada M. Bittenbender was admitted to the bar May 17, 1882, and from that time until the election gave undivided attention to the duties of her office as president of the State Association. The campaign song-book, the supplement folded in the county papers, the columns of notes and news prepared for many journals in the State, the headquarters in Lincoln from which, with the assistance of E. M. Correll and Mrs. Russell, she sent forth documents, posters, blanks and other campaign accessories, sufficiently attest her energy and ability. She is now a practicing lawyer of Lincoln, and was successful during the session of the legislature of 1885 in securing the passage of a law making mothers joint and equal guardians of their children.

Mrs. Belle G. Bigelow of Geneva was an active and reliable officer during the canvass of 1882, and is now prominent in the temperance work of Nebraska.

Mrs. Lucinda Russell of Tecumseh, for two years the treasurer of the State Association, edited a department in the local paper in the interest of the amendment, was one of the campaign committee, and spared no effort to push the work in her own county. Her sister, Mrs. Jennie F. Holmes, was one of the most efficient members of the executive committee. She drove all over her own county, holding meetings in the school-houses. The efforts of these two women would have carried Johnson county for the amendment had not the election officials taken advantage of a technical defect in the tickets used in some of the precincts. Mrs. Holmes sustained the suffrage work in Nebraska through the two following years as chairman of the executive committee, was elected in 1884 to the office of president of the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and reelected in 1885 to the same position.

Mrs. Orpha C. Dinsmoor of Omaha, as chairman of the executive committee during the first year (Mrs. De Long having resigned), contributed largely to the most successful conventions of the campaign. One of the most notable lectures given in the State was hers in reply to Chancellor Fairfield of the Nebraska University, on "Work and Wages." As it was known that the chancellor held the ground that woman should not be paid equally with man, even for the same work and the same skill, the Lincoln Woman Suffrage Association invited him to give his lecture on that subject, and Mrs. Dinsmoor to answer him on the following evening. Mrs. Dinsmoor is well known for her interest in education and scientific charity, and has, by appointment of the governor of the State, represented Nebraska at the National Conference of Charities and Corrections at its last two annual meetings. She is now the president of the Nebraska Woman's Board of Associated Charities.

Mrs. Barbara J. Thompson, of English birth, was one of the leading spirits of the Thayer County Society, and was active in holding meetings and organizing committees. Her principal service was by her ready pen, which furnished articles for a large number of papers. It is pleasant to reflect that one woman who worked so earnestly for the rights of citizenship in Nebraska has obtained them in her new home at Tacoma, Washington Territory.

Mrs. Gertrude McDowell of Fairbury lent her wit and wisdom to many conventions, was ready with her pen, and secured a thorough canvass in Jefferson county. She was the third president of the State Association.

Mrs. Mollie K. Maule of Fairmont laid by her law studies to serve on the executive board of the State Association. In company with Mrs. Susie Fifield and others, she held meetings in all the precincts of Fillmore county, securing a good vote. Mrs. Maule was elected president of the State Association in 1885.

Mrs. Jennie G. Ford of Kearney, for some time member of the executive committee, was one of the leading advocates in Buffalo county. Always aiding and inspiring others to effort, she was an incessant worker in the causes dear to her heart. She was president of the Nebraska Woman's Christian Temperance Union from 1882 to 1884. She died June 18, 1885, leaving in the hearts of all who had known her, tender memories of her beautiful life.

Miss Lydia Bell, a talented elocutionist of Lincoln, devoted some months to lecturing. Her great intellectual and rhetorical gifts made her a very effective speaker.

Dr. Hetty K. Painter was a graduate of the Pennsylvania Medical College in 1860. She was a physician in the army during the civil war, and her proudest possession is the badge which proves her membership in the Fifth Army Corps. Her practice and her infirmary at Lincoln did not prevent her helping largely the cause in which she felt so great an interest.

Mrs. Esther L. Warner of Roca was the only person actively engaged in the last canvass who had been connected with the effort of 1871. As vice-president of her judicial district, she spoke at many places, organizing wherever practicable. Her motherly face, and persuasive but humorous argument, made her a favorite at conventions. Coming to Nebraska in its early days, a widow with a large family, she purchased a large farm and devoted herself to its management, to the care and education of her children, and to the direction of the village school, being a member of the board of trustees for many years. She had not used tongue or pen for public service since her girlhood until this occasion enlisted her interest and proved her gifts.

Clara C. Chapin, La Petite, as she was called at conventions, or as a friend styles her, "the dear little English bud that blossomed on American soil," was one of the most zealous of our women, organizing, lecturing and arranging campaigns. She is at present very active in the temperance work, and is one of the editors of a State temperance paper, the Republican Valley Echo. An extract from a letter received from her in answer to inquiry will show the spirit that actuates this representative advocate of woman's political enfranchisement:

I never thought much about "woman's rights" until within the last five years—that is, political rights. I always had a strong sense of my responsibilities as a woman and a mother (have three children), and realize that we need something more than moral suasion to make our influence practical and effective. My husband, though not what is called a "politician," has been sufficiently in politics for me to know just what power the ballot has, and to see the necessity of woman's work in that direction. I am happy to say that Mr. Chapin is heart and soul with me in this, and it is a wonder to us how any wife or mother, how any Christian woman can say, "I have all the rights I want."

Hoping to hold the vantage ground already gained, a State convention was held at Kearney, December 6, 7, the place being selected because Buffalo county had carried the amendment by a good majority.

The association held three formal sessions, which were well attended and very interesting. Speeches of encouragement and congratulation were made, plans for work discussed, and campaign reminiscences recounted. One of the most interesting that was given was that of Mrs. Beedy of Gardner precinct, who said that the women actively interested in the suffrage work talked socially on the subject with every man in the precinct. There were seventy-two votes, and only four against the amendment. Of these four persons, two could neither read nor write, a third could not write his own name, and the fourth could not write his name in English. All the delegates present reported that the social work had been a prime cause of such success as they had found. Mrs. Bigelow said that Geneva precinct stood ninety-eight for the amendment and ninety-eight against. At Fairmont sixty ladies went to the polls. They wore white ribbon badges on which was printed, "Are we citizens?" The general impression among those attending the convention was that the Association should petition congress for a sixteenth amendment, petition the Nebraska legislature for municipal suffrage, and make use of school suffrage to its fullest extent. The executive committee held four sessions, appointed a number of working committees, and attended to settling up the campaign business of the Association. The convention was considered a decided success in every way.

The annual meeting was held in January, 1883. Mrs. Gertrude McDowell was elected president. The usual business was transacted, and a special committee appointed to secure favorable legislation. In view of the fact that so much of the opposition had been based on the allegation that "women do not want to vote," a resolution was prepared for the immediate re-submission of a constitutional amendment with a provision making it legal for women to vote on its final ratification. The joint resolution was introduced by Senator Charles H. Brown of Omaha, and ably advocated by him and others, especially by Senator David Butler. It was lost by nearly a two-thirds vote. The Committee on Amendments gave a hearing to Lydia Bell, Clara C. Chapin and Clara B. Colby. The joint resolution was taken up in the Senate for discussion February 15. Woman's Work gives the record of the proceedings:

Senator McShane of Douglas moved indefinite postponement. Senator Brown of Douglas, who introduced the resolution, spoke against the motion and made a forcible historical argument for the bill. Senator McShane then spoke at length against the bill, basing his opposition to the enfranchisement of woman on the ground that it would be detrimental to the interests of the foreigner. Senator Schoenheit of Richardson opposed the bill on the plea that it would mar the loveliness of woman in her domestic relations. Senator Reynolds of Butler favored the bill. He had voted against the amendment last fall, but he did it because he feared the women did not want the ballot, and he was willing to let them decide for themselves. Senator Dech of Saunders favored the bill in remarks showing a broad and comprehensive philosophy. Senator Butler of Pawnee made a magnificent arraignment of the Republican and Democratic parties, and an appeal to the anti-monopolists to oppose the monopoly of sex. His speech was the longest and most earnest of the session. Several persons expressing a desire to continue the discussion, McShane withdrew his motion to postpone. The Senate adjourned, and on Friday morning it was moved and carried that this bill be made the special order for that evening. Accordingly, the chamber and gallery were filled. On motion, Mrs. Colby was unanimously requested to address the Senate in behalf of the bill. Senator Butler escorted her to the clerk's desk, and she delivered an extemporaneous address, of which a fair synopsis was given by the Journal reporter. Foreseeing the defeat of the bill, she said, in closing, "You may kill this bill, gentlemen, but you cannot kill the principle of individual liberty that is at issue. It is immortal, and rises Phoenix-like from every death to a new life of surpassing beauty and vigor. The votes you cast against the bill will, like the dragons' teeth in the myth of old, spring up into armed warriors that shall obstruct your path, demanding of you the recognition of woman's right to 'equality before the law.'" The grave and reverend senators joined in the applause of the gallery, and carried Senator Reynolds' motion "that the thanks of this Senate be returned to Mrs. Colby for the able, eloquent and instructive address to which we have listened"; but with no apparent reluctance, on Senator McShane's motion being renewed, they postponed the bill by a vote of 18 to 6.[474] Of the absent ones, Senator Dech was known to be sick, some of the others were in their seats a moment previous, and it is fairly to be presumed that they did not dare to vote upon the question. Of those voting aye, Senators Brown of Clay, and Walker of Lancaster had favored the bill in the committee, and the friends were counting on their vote, as also some others who had expressed themselves favorable. It is due to Senators Brown of Douglas and Butler to say that they championed the bill heartily, and furthered its interests in every possible way.

Conventions were held at Grand Island in May, at Hastings in August of 1883, and at Fremont August, 1884. The annual meeting of 1884 was held at York, and that of 1885 in Lincoln. At all of these enthusiasm and interest were manifested, which indicate that the idea has not lost its foothold. The Woman's Tribune, established in 1883, circulates largely in the State, and maintains an intelligent if not an active interest. When a new occasion comes the women will be able to meet it. Their present attitude of hopeful waiting has the courage and faith expressed in the words of Lowell:

"Endurance is the crowning quality, And patience all the passion of great hearts; These are their stay, and when the hard world With brute strength, like scornful conqueror, Clangs his huge mace down in the other scale, The inspired soul but flings his patience in, And slowly that out-weighs the ponderous globe; One faith against a whole world's unbelief, One soul against the flesh of all mankind."



FOOTNOTES:

[457] Having visited Beatrice twice to speak in different courses of lectures arranged by Mrs. Colby, I can testify to her executive ability alike in her domestic and public work. She can get up a meeting, arrange the platform, with desk and lights, and introduce a speaker with as much skill and grace as she can spread a table with dainty china and appetizing food, and enliven a dinner with witty and earnest conversation.—[E. C. S.

[458] Yeas—Messrs. Boulwere, Buck, Campbell, Chambers, Clancy, Davis, Decker, Hail, Haygood, Hoover, Kirk, Larimer, Rose, Sullivan—14.

Nays—Messrs. Beck, Bowen, Gibson, Harsh, Laird, Miller, Moore, Morton, McDonald, Riden, Salisbury—11.

[459] It is a pleasure to record that both these gentlemen have reached the logical result of their former views, and now advocate giving the franchise to intelligence and patriotism regardless of the sex of the possessor. Governor Saunders, in the capacity of United States Senator, cast a favorable ballot on measures in any manner referring to woman's civil rights, and in 1882 spoke on the platform of the National Association, at its Washington convention.

[460] The legislature of 1875 repealed this law except so far as it referred to unmarried adult women and widows. In the legislature of 1881, Senator C. H. Gere introduced a bill revising the laws relating to schools. One of the provisions of the bill conferred the school ballot on women on the same terms as on men—viz: Any person having children of school age, or having paid taxes on personal property, or being assessed on real estate, within such a period, is entitled to vote at all elections pertaining to schools. This, however, does not include the power to vote for State or county superintendents. The women of the State now vote so largely that it is no longer a matter of comment or record.

[461] The following named representatives voted "yea": Messrs. Ahmanson, Cannon, Doone, Galey, Goodin, Hall, Jenkins, Kipp, Majors, Myers, Nims, Patterson, Porter, Quimby, Rhodes, Ryan, Wickham, Riordan, Roberts—19. Voting "nay": Messrs. Briggs, Beall, E. Clark, J. Clark, Dillon, Duby, Grenell, Hudson, Munn, Overton, Reed, Rosewater, Rouse, Schock, Shook, Sommerlad—16.

[462] Voting in the affirmative: Messrs. Gerrard, Hascall, Kennedy, Tucker, Tennant, and Mr. President—6. Voting in the negative: Messrs. Brown, Hawke, Hillon, Metz, Sheldon, and Thomas—6.

[463] Voting "yea": Messrs. Ballard, Boyd, Campbell, Cassell, Estabrook, Gibbs, Gray, Hascall, Kenaston, Kilburn, Kirkpatrick, Lake, Lyon, Majors, Mason, Manderson, Maxwell, Neligh, Newsome, Philpott, Price, Robinson, Stewart, Spiece, Shaff, Thomas, Tisdel, Towle, Wakeley, President Strickland—30. Voting "nay": Messrs. Abbott, Eaton, Granger, Griggs, Moore, Myers, Parchin, Reynolds, Sprague, Stevenson, Hummel, Vifquain, Weaver—13.

[464] The gentlemen who advocated the measure most warmly, were among the ablest judges and jurists of the State. Of the opposition, Judge O. P. Mason experienced a change of heart, and ten years later appeared as a foremost advocate. General E. Estabrook of Omaha lent all his influence to the amendment in the late canvass, and Col. Philpott of Lincoln was also a warm advocate, often accompanying his zealous wife and other members of the effective and untiring Lincoln association to the school-house meetings held in all parts of Lancaster county. D. T. Moore was called out at a meeting in York in 1881, and came forward without hesitation, saying that he was in favor of woman suffrage. He related this incident: that on his return home from the convention of 1871, he found that his wife had been looking after his stock farm and attending to his business so that everything was in good order. He praised her highly, when she replied, "Yes, and while I was caring for your interests, you were voting against my rights." The reply set him to thinking, and he thought himself over on the other side. A. J. Weaver opposed the clause in a very bitter speech. The friends of the amendment in 1881 were given to understand that Mr. Weaver was friendly, but to prevent the foreigners having that opinion, Mr. Weaver translated the record of his opposition into German, and distributed the papers among the German voters. Having been elected to congress, he was one of only three Republican members who voted against the standing committee on woman's claims. These facts cost him a great many votes at the time of his reelection in 1884, and are not yet forgotten.

[465] The debates of this convention were not reported for the economical reasons mentioned. The names of the honored fifteen are, Clinton Briggs, W. L. Dunlap, R. C. Eldridge, J. G. Ewan, C. H. Frady, C. H. Gere, R. B. Harrington, D. P. Henry, C. F. Manderson, J. McPherson, M. B. Reese, S. M. Kirkpatrick, L. B. Thorne, A. M. Walling, J. F. Zediker. Many of these were active friends of the amendment of 1881.

[466] The officers elected were: President, Harriet S. Brooks, Omaha; Vice-President-at-Large, Clara Bewick Colby, Beatrice; Vice-Presidents—First Judicial District, Mrs. B. J. Thomson, Hebron; Second, Mrs. E. L. Warner, Roca; Third, Mrs. A. P. Nicholas, Omaha; Fourth, Mrs. J. S. Burns, Scribner; Fifth, Mrs. C. C. Chapin, Riverton; Sixth, Mrs. D. B. Slaughter, Fullerton; Recording Secretary, Mrs. Ada M. Bittenbender, Osceola; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Gertrude McDowell, Fairbury; Treasurer, Mrs. L. Russell, Tecumseh; Executive Committee, Rev. M. J. DeLong, Tecumseh; Mrs. Orpha C. Dinsmoor, Omaha; Mrs. J. C. Roberts, David City; Mrs. C. B. Parker, Mrs. J. B. Finch, Lincoln; Mrs. E. M. Correll, Hebron; Mrs. J. H. Bowen, Hastings.

[467] Members voting in the affirmative were: Messrs. Abbott, Babcock; Bailey, Baldwin, Bartlett, Broatch, Brown, Cantlin, Carman, Cook, Cole, Correll, Dailey, Dew, Dowty, Filley, Fried, Graham, Gray, Hall, Heacock, Herman, Hostetter, Howe, Jackson of Pawnee, Jensen, Johnson, Jones, Kaley, Kempton, Kyner, Linn, McClun, McDougall, McKinnon, Mickey, Moore of York, Montgomery, Palmer, Paxton, Ransom, Reed, Roberts, Root, Schick, Scott, Sill, Slocumb, Watts, Wilsey and Windham—51. Voting in the negative: Messrs. Bick, Bolln, Case, Franse, Frederick, Gates, Hollman, Jackson of Douglas, King, Lamb, Laughlin, McShane, Moore of Otoe, Mullen, Overton, Peterson, Putney, Sears, Wells, Whedon, Ziegler and Mr. Speaker—22.

[468] At this time the valuable information from Wyoming with which Nebraska was afterwards flooded; letters from Gov. Hoyt, editorials from leading papers of the territory, and testimony from every reputable source, had not been gathered; but two members of the House, J. H. Helm and Church Howe, had been residents of Wyoming, and these cheerfully gave their assurance that only good had resulted from the enfranchisement of the women of Wyoming.

[469] Those voting in the affirmative were: Messrs. Baker, Burns (of Dodge), Burns (of York), Coon, Daily, Dinsmore, Doane, Evans, Gere, Graham, Harrington, Morse, Perkins, Pierce, Powers, Smith, Tefft, Turner, Van Wyck, Wells, Wherry and White—22. Those voting in the negative were: Messrs. Ballentine, Cady, Ervin, Howe, Myers, Taylor, Turk and Zehrung—8. Two of these names cannot stand in the roll of honor without an explanation; for twenty votes indicate the full strength of the bill. The irrelevance of opponents was illustrated by Senators Morse and Pierce. The former in voting said, he had opposed the measure every step of the way, and now to be consistent he voted aye. Senator Pierce said he had been watching the other side of the capitol and nothing there seemed popular but whiskey and women, therefore, he voted aye!

[470] The speakers of this convention were Clara Bewick Colby, acting president; Mr. Sattler, who gave the welcome; Ada M. Bittenbender, Esther L. Warner, Judge I. N. Taylor, Mrs. M. E. Vandermark, Rev. Haywood and Professor Wood of Nebraska City College. The latter spoke in English in the afternoon, and in German, his native tongue, in the evening. The announcement that he would do so drew a large number of his countrymen. One of these was allowed the floor by request, when he soundly berated (in German) the women as opposed to foreigners, while at the same time he tried to weaken Professor Wood's argument by saying it was to be attributed to an American wife. It was reported that the marked contrast between the speakers was commented on by resident Germans greatly to the disadvantage of their fellow-townsman.

[471] The officers elected were: President, Ada M. Bittenbender; Vice-President, Clara Bewick Colby; Secretary, Belle G. Bigelow; Corresponding Secretary, Gertrude M. McDowell; Treasurer, Lucinda Russell; Executive Committee, Harriet S. Brooks, E. M. Correll, Susie Noble Fifield, George B. Skinner, Rev. John McNamara, Jennie F. Holmes; Vice-Presidents of Judicial Districts—First, Barbara J. Thompson; second, Dr. Ruth M. Wood; third, Orpha Clement Dinsmoor; fourth, Ada Van Pelt; fifth, Mrs. H. S. Sydenham.

[472] Most of the speakers spent several weeks in the State. Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, Mrs. May Wright Sewall, Mrs. Saxon, Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Harbert, Mrs. Shattuck, Mrs. Neyman, Miss Anthony, Miss Couzins and Miss Hindman were the principal National speakers, and their ability and zeal aroused the whole State. Mrs. Colby was indefatigable in her exertions from the moment the amendment was submitted to the end of the canvass. Mrs. Colby and Miss Rachel Foster organized the whole campaign throughout the State, and kept all the speakers in motion.—[S. B. A.

[473] For further details of the closing scenes, see Vol. III. page 241.

[474] Yeas—Brown (Clay), Brown (Colfax), Butler, Canfield, Conklin, Dolan, Dunphy, Harrison, Heist, McShane, Norris, Patterson, Rogers, Sang, Schoenheit, Sowers, Thatch and Walker—18. Senator Butler voted with these for the purpose of being able to move a reconsideration. Nays—Bomgardner, Brown (Douglas), Conner, Dye, Filley and Reynolds—6. Absent—Barker, Brown (Lancaster), Case, Dech, Fisher, Harris, Kinkaid and Rich.



CHAPTER L.

KANSAS.

Effect of the Popular Vote on Woman Suffrage—Anna C. Wait—Hannah Wilson—Miss Kate Stephens, Professor of Greek in State University—Lincoln Centre Society, 1879—The Press—The Lincoln Beacon—Election, 1880—Sarah A. Brown, Democratic Candidate—Fourth of July Celebration—Women Voting on the School Question—State Society, 1884—Helen M. Gougar—Clara Bewick Colby—Bertha H. Ellsworth—Radical Reform Association—Mrs. A. G. Lord—Prudence Crandall—Clarina Howard Nichols—Laws—Women in the Professions—Schools—Political Parties—Petitions to the Legislature—Col. F. G. Adams' Letter.

We closed the chapter on Kansas in Vol. II. with the submission and defeat of the woman suffrage amendment, leaving the advocates of the measure so depressed with the result that several years elapsed before any further attempts were made to reorganize their forces for the agitation of the question. This has been the experience of the friends in every State where the proposition has been submitted to a vote of the electors—alike in Michigan, Colorado, Nebraska and Oregon—offering so many arguments in favor of the enfranchisement of woman by a simple act of the legislature, where the real power of the people is primarily represented. We have so many instances on record of the exercise of this power by the legislatures of the several States in the regulation of the suffrage, that there can be no doubt that the sole responsibility in securing this right to the women of a State rests with the legislature, or with congress in passing a sixteenth amendment that should override all State action in protecting the rights of United States citizens.

We are indebted to Anna C. Wait for most of the interesting facts of this chapter. She writes:

I watched with intense interest from my home in Ohio, the progress of the woman suffrage idea in Kansas in the campaign of 1867, and although temporary defeat was the result, yet the moral grandeur displayed by the people in seeking to make their constitution an embodiment of the principle of American liberty, decided me to become a citizen of that young and beautiful State. Gov. Harvey's message was at that time attracting much attention and varied comments by the press. For the benefit of those who have not studied the whole history of the cause, we give the following extracts from his message, published February 9, 1871:

The tendency of this age is towards a civil policy wherein political rights will not be affected by social or ethnological distinctions; and from the moral nature of mankind and the experience of States, we may infer that restrictions merely arbitrary and conventional, like those based upon color and sex, cannot last much longer than they are desired, and cannot be removed much sooner than they should be. This consideration should give patience to the reformer, and resignation to the conservative.

Let us have a true republic—a "government of the people, by the people, for the people," and we shall hear no more the oligarchical cry of croaking conservatism calling for a "white man's government"—appealing by this, and like slogans of class and caste to the lowest and meanest principles of human nature, dangerous alike to real republicanism and true democracy. Expediency, that great pretext for the infringement of human rights, no longer justifies us in the retention of a monopoly of political power in our own favored class of "white male citizens."

In the summer of 1871, Mr. Wait and myself removed to Salina, where Mrs. Hannah Wilson resided. She was the only person in this section of Kansas I ever heard of doing any suffrage work between the years of 1867 and 1877. She was a woman of great force of character, and a strong advocate of suffrage. She was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, and came to Salina in 1870. After Miss Anthony lectured in that city in 1877, Mrs. Wilson circulated petitions to the legislature and to congress. She was also active and aggressive in the temperance cause. When she learned of the Lincoln Beacon, and its advocacy of woman suffrage, she wrote an article for the paper, and accompanied it with a kind letter and the price of a year's subscription. Mrs. Wilson was a Quaker, and in her dress and address strictly adhered to the peculiarites of that sect.

Miss Kate Stephens, professor of Greek in the Kansas State University, writes that she has made diligent search during the past summer among the libraries of Topeka and Lawrence for record of suffrage work since the campaign of 1867, and finds absolutely nothing, so that I am reduced to the necessity of writing, principally, of our little efforts here in central Kansas. In the intensely interesting letters of Mesdames Helen Ekin Starrett, Susan E. Wattles, Dr. R. S. Tenney and Hon. J. P. Root, in Vol. II., all written since 1880, I find no mention of any woman suffrage organizations. Mrs. Wattles, of Mound City, says: "My work has been very limited. I have only been able to circulate tracts and papers"; and she enumerates all the woman suffrage papers ever published in America, which she had taken and given away. A quiet, unobtrusive method of work, but one of the most effective; and doubtless to the sentiment created and fostered by this sowing of suffrage literature by Mrs. Wattles, is largely due the wonderful revival which has swept like one of our own prairie fires over south-eastern Kansas during the past year; a sentiment so strong as to need but "a live coal from off the altar" to kindle into a blaze of enthusiasm. This it received in the earnest eloquence of Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, who has twice visited that portion of the State. All these writers express their faith in a growing interest in the suffrage cause, and, some of them, the belief that if the question were again submitted to a vote of the people, it would carry.

In our State suffrage convention, June, 1884, among the demands which we resolved to make of our incoming legislature, was the submission of an amendment striking out the word "male" from the State constitution. For myself, I entertained no hope that it would succeed further than as a means of agitation and education. On reflection, I hope it will not be done. The women of Kansas have once been subjected to the humiliation of having their political disabilities perpetuated by the vote of the "rank and file" of our populace. While I believe the growth of popular opinion in favor of equality of rights for women has nowhere been more rapid than in Kansas, yet I do not lose sight of the fact that thousands of foreigners are each year added to the voting population, whose ballots in the aggregate defeat the will of our enlightened, American-born citizens. Besides, it is a too convenient way for a legislature to shirk its own responsibility. If the demand is made, I hope it may be done in connection with that for municipal and presidential suffrage.

The history of the woman suffrage organizations in Kansas since 1867, may be briefly told. The first owes its existence to one copy of the National Citizen and Ballot-Box subscribed for by my husband, W. S. Wait, who by the merest chance heard Miss Anthony deliver her famous lecture, "Woman wants Bread, not the Ballot," in Salina, in November, 1877. The paper was religiously read by Mrs. Emily J. Biggs and myself; although we did not need conversion, both being radical in our ideas on this question, we had long felt the need of something being done which would fix public attention and provoke discussion. This was all we felt ourselves competent to do, and the knowledge that nobody else in our section of the country would do it, coupled with the inspiration of the National Citizen, culminated, in November 1879, in sending to the Saline Valley Register, George W. Anderson, editor and proprietor, a notice for a meeting of women for the purpose of organizing a suffrage society. In response to the call, Mrs. Emily J. Biggs, Mrs. Sarah E. Lutes, and Mrs. Wait, met November 11, 1879, at the house of A. T. Biggs, and organized the Lincoln Auxiliary of the National Association. We elected a full corps of officers from among ladies whom we believed to be favorable, interviewed them for their approval, and sent a full report of the meeting to be published as a matter of news in the Register, which had given our call without comment. The editor had a few weeks previously bought the paper, and we were totally ignorant in regard to his position upon the question. We were not long left in doubt, for the fact that we had actually organized in a way which showed that we understood ourselves, and meant business, had the effect to elicit from his pen a scurrilous article, in which he called us "the three noble-hearted women," classed us with "free-lovers," called us "monstrosities, neither men nor women," and more of the same sort. Of course, the effect of this upon the community was to array all true friends of the cause on our side, to bring the opposition, made bold by the championship of such a gallant leader, to the front, and cause the faint-hearted to take to the fence. And here we had the discussion opened up in a manner which, had we foreseen, I fear our courage would have been inadequate to the demand. But not for one moment did we entertain a thought of retreating. Knowing that if we maintained silence, the enemy would consider us vanquished, I wrote an article for his paper, quoting largely from Walker's American Law, which he published; and Mrs. Biggs also furnished him an article in which she showed him up in a manner so ludicrous and sarcastic that he got rid of printing it by setting it up full of mistakes which he manufactured himself, and sending her the proof with the information that if he published it at all, it would be in that form. It appeared the following week, however, in the first number of The Argus, a Democratic paper, Ira C. Lutes, editor and proprietor, in which we at once secured a column for the use of our society. About a dozen ladies attended our second meeting, at which the following resolutions were unanimously adopted, all the ladies present being allowed to vote:

WHEREAS, The local newspaper is adjudged, by common consent, to be the exponent of the intelligence, refinement, and culture of a community, and, in a large degree, the educator of the rising generation; and

WHEREAS, In one issue of the Lincoln Register there appears no fewer than forty-seven misspelled words, with numerous errors in grammatical construction and punctuation; also a scurrilous article headed "Woman vs. Man," in which the editor not only grossly misrepresents us, but assails the characters of all advocates of suffrage everywhere in a manner which shocks the moral sense of every true lady and gentleman in this community; therefore

Resolved, That this association present the editor of the Register with a copy of some standard English spelling-book, and English Language Lessons, for his especial use.

Resolved, That as he has been so kind as to offer his advice to us, unsolicited, we reciprocate the favor by admonishing him to confine himself to facts in future, and to remember that the people of Lincoln are capable of appreciating truth and common decency.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be furnished the editor of the Lincoln Register, with the books above named.

This was promptly done, and so enraged him that the following week he published a tirade of abuse consisting of brazen falsehoods, whereupon a gentleman called a halt, by faithfully promising to chastise him if he did not desist, which had the desired effect so far as his paper was concerned.

W. S. Wait bought the Argus at the end of four months, changed its politics to Republican, and its name to the Lincoln Beacon, in which I established a woman suffrage department, under the head of "Woman as a Citizen," with one of Lucretia Mott's favorite mottoes, "Truth for Authority, and not Authority for Truth"; and weekly, for six years, it has gone to a constantly increasing circle of readers, and contributed its share to whatever strength and influence the cause has gained in this portion of the State. In the summer of 1880, G. W. Anderson announced himself a candidate for the legislature. He had just before made himself especially obnoxious by shockingly indecent remarks about the ladies who had participated in the exercises of the Fourth of July celebration. At a meeting of the suffrage society, held August 6, the following resolution, suggested by Mrs. S. E. Lutes, were unanimously adopted:

WHEREAS, We, as responsible members of society, and guardians of the purity of our families and community, are actuated by a sense of duty and our accountability to God for the faithful performance of it; and

WHEREAS, George W. Anderson, editor and proprietor of the Lincoln Register, during his few months' residence in our county has, by constant calumny and scurrility, both verbal and through the columns of his paper, sought to injure the reputation of the honorable women who compose the Lincoln suffrage and temperance associations, and of all women everywhere who sympathize with the aims and purposes which these societies represent; and

WHEREAS, His utterances through the columns of the Lincoln Register are often unfit to be read by any child, or aloud in any family, because of their indecency, we are unanimously of the opinion that his course is calculated to defeat the aims and purposes of Christianity, temperance and morality; therefore

Resolved, That whenever George W. Anderson aspires to any position of honor, trust or emolument in the gift of the voters of Lincoln county, we will use all honorable means in our power to defeat him; and we further urge upon every woman who has the welfare of our county at heart, the duty and necessity of cooeperating with us to accomplish this end.

The above preamble and resolution appeared in the woman's column of the Lincoln Beacon the following week, and 250 copies were printed in the form of hand-bills and distributed to the twenty-three post-offices in Lincoln county. It did not prevent his election, and we did not expect it would, but we believed it our duty to enter our protest against the perpetration of this outrage upon the moral sense of those who knew him best. We ignored him in the legislature, sending our petitions asking that body to recommend to congress the adoption of the sixteenth amendment, to Hon. S. C. Millington of Crawford, who had come to our notice that winter by offering a woman suffrage resolution in the House. In 1882 Anderson sought a second indorsement as a candidate for the legislature, but that portion of the community which he really represented had become disgusted with him; he struggled against fate with constantly waning patronage for another year, when he succumbed to the inevitable and sought a new field, a wiser if a sadder man. His mantle has fallen upon E. S. Bower, whose capacity and style were graphically portrayed in caustic rhyme by Mrs. Ellsworth, making him the target for the wit of the women long after.

I have given more space and prominence to these two editors than they merit, but the influence of a local newspaper is not to be despised, however despicable the editor and his paper may be; and it takes no small degree of courage to face such an influence as that exerted in this county by the one in question, which, I am happy to say, has gradually dwindled, until to-day it is too trifling, both in extent and character, to deserve recognition.

Six years ago I do not believe there was a paper in the State of Kansas which contained a woman suffrage department, and we rarely saw any reference whatever to the subject; now, within a radius of fifty miles of Lincoln Centre, fully two-thirds of all newspapers published have a column devoted to suffrage or temperance, or both, edited by women. The reason this is not true of the press of the entire State is because our indefatigable corresponding secretary, Mrs. Bertha H. Ellsworth, has not yet had sufficient time to personally present the matter; but there has been such a growth on the subject that by the press generally it seems to be accepted as one of the living issues of the day. A very efficient agency in bringing about this desirable result was the printed column, entitled "Concerning Women," sent out gratis every week during the year 1882, by Mrs. Lucy Stone, from the office of The Woman's Journal, to all newspapers that would publish it. Many Kansas editors availed themselves of this generous offer, greatly to the advantage of their patrons and themselves.

But to return to the Lincoln Woman Suffrage Association. The first year our membership increased to twenty-seven; the second, to forty, including six gentlemen. We did not invite gentlemen to join the first year; owing to the character and attitude of the opposition, we preferred to demonstrate our ability to conduct the affairs of the society without masculine assistance. During our six years' existence we have enrolled eighty members, eighteen of whom are gentlemen. Of this number, forty-five women and fourteen men still reside in Lincoln county. We have held, on an average, one parlor meeting a month and ten public meetings.

In 1880, Mesdames Emily J. Biggs, Mary Crawford, Bertha H. Ellsworth and myself were assigned places on the programme for the Fourth of July celebration, after solicitation by a committee from our society. To me was assigned the reading of the Declaration of Independence, and I embraced the opportunity of interspersing a few remarks not found in that honored document, to the delight of our friends and the disgust of our foes. The other ladies all made original, excellent and well-timed addresses. In 1881 we got up the Fourth of July celebration[475] ourselves, and gave the men half the programme without their asking for it. In 1883 we had a "Foremothers' Day" celebration, and confined the programme to our own society. In September, 1882, the society sent the writer as delegate to the annual meeting of the National Woman Suffrage Association, held at Omaha, Nebraska; and in March, 1884, we sent Bertha H. Ellsworth to the Washington convention in the same capacity. Our society has taken an active part in the annual school district elections in Lincoln Centre. In the last five elections we have been twice defeated and three times successful. Our defeats we claimed as victories, inasmuch as we forced our opponents to bring out all their friends to outvote us. Fifty per cent. of all the votes cast at the last three elections were by women. Only twelve women in the town failed to vote in 1884. This increase is general all over the State; and, although we have only once tried in Lincoln Centre to elect a woman, and then failed, yet very many of the country districts have one, some two women on the school-board, and at one time all three members in one district were women. That they are honest, capable and efficient is the verdict in every case.

In the spring of 1881, Mrs. Emily J. Biggs organized the Stanton Suffrage Society, eight miles from Lincoln Centre, with a membership of over twenty, more than half of whom were gentlemen. Mesdames Mary Baldwin, N. Good, T. Faulkner, M. Biggs, Mrs. Swank and others were the leading spirits. All their meetings are public, and are held in the school-house. Through this society that portion of the county has become well leavened with suffrage sentiment. Failing health alone has prevented Mrs. Biggs from carrying this school district organization to all parts of the county and beyond its limits, as she has been urgently invited to do. "Instant in season and out of season" with a word for the cause, she has, individually, reached more people with the subject than any other half-dozen women in the society. Her pen, too, has done good service. Over the nom de plume of "Nancy," in the Beacon, she has dealt telling blows to our ancient adversary, the Register. In October, 1882, the writer went by invitation to Ellsworth and organized a society[476] auxiliary to the National, composed of excellent material, but too timid to do more than hold its own until the summer of 1884, when Mrs. Gougar, and later, Mrs. Colby, lectured there, soon after which Mrs. Ellsworth canvassed the town with literature and a petition for municipal suffrage, which was signed by eighty of the eighty-five women to whom it was presented, showing that there was either a great deal of original suffrage sentiment there, or that the society had exerted a large amount of "silent influence." In October, 1883, Mrs. Helen M. Gougar came to fill some lecture engagements in the southeastern part of the State. During this visit she organized several clubs.[477]

In June, 1884, Mrs. Gougar again visited Kansas, lecturing for a month in different parts of the State. She drew large audiences and made many converts. A suffrage society was organized at Emporia, Miss M. J. Watson, president. The active friends availed themselves of her assistance to call a State Suffrage Convention, which met in the Senate chamber in Topeka, June 25, 26, and organized a State Association.[478] Mrs. Gougar, by the unanimous vote of the convention, presided, and dispatched business with her characteristic ability. In view of all the circumstances, this convention and its results were highly satisfactory. The attendance was not large, but the fact that the call was issued from Topeka to the press of the State but eight days before the convention met, and probably did not reach half the papers in time for one insertion, accounts for the absence of a crowd. Some even in Topeka learned that the convention was in progress barely in time to reach its last session. Reporters for the Topeka Capital, the Topeka Commonwealth and Kansas City Journal attended all the day sessions of the convention, and gave full and fair reports of the proceedings. After the adjournment of the State convention, the women of Topeka formed a city society. The corresponding secretary, Mrs. Ellsworth, with Mrs. Clara B. Colby, made an extensive circuit, lecturing and organizing societies. They were everywhere cordially welcomed.[479]

Kansas has a flourishing Women's Christian Temperance Union which at its last annual meeting adopted a strong woman suffrage resolution; Miss O. P. Bray of Topeka is its superintendent of franchise. Mrs. Emma Molloy of Washington, both upon the rostrum and through her paper, the official organ of the State Union, ably and fearlessly advocates woman suffrage as well as prohibition, and makes as many converts to the former as to the latter.

Mrs. A. G. Lord did a work worthy of mention in the formation of the Radical Reform Christian Association, for young men and boys, taking their pledge to neither swear, use tobacco nor drink intoxicating liquors. A friend says of Mrs. Lord:

Like all true reformers she has met even more than the usual share of opposition and persecution, and mostly because she is a woman and a licensed preacher of the Methodist church in Kansas. She was a preacher for three years, but refuses to be any longer because, she says, under the discipline as it now is, the church has no right to license a woman to preach. Trying to do her work inside the church in which she was born and reared, she has had to combat not only the powers of darkness outside the church, but also the most contemptible opposition, amounting in several instances to bitter persecutions, from the ministers of her own denomination with whom she has been associated in her work as a preacher; and through it all she has toiled on, manifesting only the most patient, forgiving spirit, and the broadest, most Christ-like charity.

The R. R. C. A. has been in existence two and a half years, and has already many hundreds of members in this and adjoining counties, through the indefatigable zeal of its founder. Mitchell county has the honor of numbering among its many enterprising women the only woman who is a mail contractor in the United States, Mrs. Myra Peterson, a native of New Hampshire. The Woman's Tribune of November, 1884, contains the following brief sketch of a grand historic character:

Marianna T. Folsom is lecturing in Kansas on woman suffrage. She gives an interesting account of a visit to Mrs. Prudence Crandall Philleo. Miss Crandall over fifty years ago allowed a girl with colored blood in her veins to attend her young ladies' school in Connecticut. On account of the social disturbance because of this, she dismissed the white girls and made her school one for colored pupils. Protests were followed by indictments, and these by mobbings, until she was obliged to give up her school. For her fortitude, the Anti-Slavery Society had her portrait painted. It became the property of Rev. Samuel J. May, who donated it to Cornell University when opened to women. Miss Crandall married, but has now been a widow many years. She is in her eighty-third year, and is vigorous in mind and body, having been able to deliver the last Fourth of July oration at Elk Falls, Kan., where she now lives and advocates woman suffrage and temperance.

In the introduction to Chapter VII., Vol. I., of this history, appears this sentence: "To Clarina Howard Nichols[480] the women of Kansas are indebted for many civil rights which they have as yet been too apathetic to exercise." Uncomplimentary as this statement is, I must admit its truthfulness as applied to a large majority of our women of culture and leisure, those who should have availed themselves of the privileges already theirs and labored for what the devotion of Mrs. Nichols made attainable. They have neither done this, nor tried to enlighten their less favored sisters throughout the State, the great mass of whom are obliged to exert every energy of body and mind to furnish food, clothes and shelter for themselves and children. Probably fully four-fifths of the women of Kansas never have heard of Clarina Howard Nichols; while a much larger number do know that our laws favor women more than those of other States, and largely avail themselves of the school ballot. The readiness with which the rank and file of our women assent to the truth when it is presented to them, indicates that their inaction results not so much from apathy and indifference as from a lack of means and opportunity. Among all the members of all the woman suffrage societies in Central Kansas, I know of but just one woman of leisure—one who is not obliged to make a personal sacrifice of some kind each time she attends a meeting or pays a dollar into the treasury. Section 6, Article XV., of the constitution of Kansas reads:

The legislature shall provide for the protection of the rights of women, in acquiring and possessing property, real, personal, and mixed, separate and apart from her husband; and shall also provide for their equal rights in the possession of their children. In accordance with the true spirit of this section, our statute provides that the law of descents and distributions as regards the property of either husband or wife is the same; and the interests of one in the property of the other are the same with each; and that the common-law principles of estates of dower, and by courtesy are abolished.[481]



The rights of husband and wife in the control of their respective properties, both real and personal, are identical, as provided for in sections 1, 2, 3, and 4. Chapter 62, page 539, compiled laws of Kansas, 1878:

SECTION 1. The property, real and personal, which any woman in this State may own at the time of her marriage, and the rents, issues, profits, and proceeds thereof, and any real, personal, or mixed property which shall come to her by descent, devise, or bequest, or the gift of any person except her husband, shall remain her sole and separate property, notwithstanding her marriage, and not be subject to the disposal of her husband, or liable for his debts.

SEC. 2. A married woman, while the marriage relation subsists, may bargain, sell and convey her real and personal property, and enter into any contract with reference to the same, in the same manner, to the same extent, and with like effect as a married man may in relation to his real and personal property.

SEC. 3. A woman may, while married, sue and be sued, in the same manner as if unmarried.

SEC. 4. Any married woman may carry on any trade or business, and perform any labor or services, on her sole and separate account, and the earnings of any married woman from her trade, business, labor or services, shall be her sole and separate property, and may be used and invested by her in her own name.

It is a fact worthy of note that the above legislation, also the passage of the law of descents and distributions, immediately followed the woman suffrage campaign of 1867.

In 1880, the Democrats of Kansas, in their State convention at Topeka, nominated Miss Sarah A. Brown of Douglas county, for superintendent of public instruction, the first instance on record of a woman receiving a nomination from one of the leading political parties for a State office. The following is Miss Brown's letter of acceptance:

OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, Douglas } Co., Kansas,} LAWRENCE, Kansas, Sept. 30, 1880. }

To Hon. John Martin, Topeka, Kansas, Chairman of the State Democratic Central Committee:

SIR:—I am in receipt of your communication of August 30, advising me of the action of the Democratic convention of August 26, in nominating me as their candidate for State superintendent of public instruction.

In making this nomination the Democratic party of Kansas has, with a liberal and enlightened spirit, and with a generous purpose, yielded to the tendency of the times, which demand equal rights and equal opportunities for all the people, and it has thus shown itself to be a party of progress. It has placed itself squarely and unequivocally before the people upon this great and vital question of giving to woman the right to work in any field for which she may be fitted, thus placing our young and glorious State in the foremost rank on this, as on the other questions of reform.

Furthermore, in nominating one who has no vote, and for this reason cannot be considered in politics, and in doing this of its own free will, without any solicitation on my part, the Democratic party of this State has shown that it is in full accord with the Jeffersonian doctrine that the office should seek the man and not the man the office; and also that it fully appreciates the fact which is conceded by all persons who have thought much on educational matters, that the best interests of our schools demand that the office of superintendent, both of the State and county, should be as far as possible disconnected from politics, and it has done what it could to rescue the office from the vortex of mere partisan strife. For this reason I accept the nomination, thanking the party for the honor it has conferred upon me.

Respectfully, SARAH A. BROWN.

Miss Brown was defeated. The vote of the State showed the average Democrat unable to overcome his time-rusted prejudices sufficiently to vote for a woman to fill the highest educational office in the gift of the people, so that Miss Brown's minority was smaller even than that of the regular Democratic ticket.

January 21, 1881, Hon. S. C. Millington of Crawford county introduced in the House a joint resolution providing for the submission to the legal voters of the State of Kansas of a proposition to amend the constitution so as to admit of female suffrage. The vote on the adoption of the resolution stood 51 ayes and 31 noes in the House, and a tie in the Senate. Later in the same session, Hon. A. C. Pierce of Davis county introduced in the House a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the constitution which should confer the right of suffrage on any one over 21 years of age who had resided in the State six months. Mr. Hackney of Cowley county, introduced a like resolution in the Senate.

In December, 1881, Governor St. John appointed Mrs. Cora M. Downs one of the regents of the State University at Lawrence. In 1873, Mrs. Rice was elected to the office of county clerk of Harper county, and Miss Alice Junken to the office of recorder of deeds, in Davis county. In 1885 Miss Junken was reelected by a majority of 500 over her competitor, Mrs. Fleming, while Trego county gave a unanimous vote for Miss Ada Clift as register of deeds.

In proportion to her population Kansas has as many women in the professions as any of the older States. We have lawyers, physicians, preachers and editors, and the number is constantly increasing. In Topeka there are eight practicing physicians, holding diplomas from medical colleges, and two or three who are not graduates. In the Woman's Medical College of Chicago, Kansas now has four representatives—Mrs. Sallie A. Goff of Lincoln, Miss Thomas of Olathe, Miss Cunningham of Garnett, and Miss Gilman of Pittsburg.

All female persons over the age of twenty-one years are entitled to vote at any school-district meeting on the same terms as men.

The right of a woman to hold any office, State (except member of the legislature), county, township or school-district, in the State of Kansas, is the same as that of a man. In 1882, six counties, viz., Chase, Cherokee, Greenwood, Labette, Pawnee, and Woodson, elected women as superintendents of public instruction.

Section 23, Article II., Constitution of Kansas, reads: "The legislature, in providing for the formation and regulation of schools, shall make no distinction between males and females."

Under the legislation based upon this clause of our constitution, males and females have equal privileges in all schools controlled by the State. The latest report of the State superintendent of public instruction shows that over one-half of the pupils of the Normal school, about two-fifths in the University, and nearly one-third in the Agricultural College, are females.

In the private institutions of learning, including both denominational and unsectarian, over one-half of the students are females who study in the same classes as the males, except in Washburn college which has a separate course for ladies.

Most of these institutions have one woman, or more, in their faculties. One-half of the faculty of the State University is composed of women. In the last report of the State superintendent is the following:

The ratio of female teachers is greater than ever before, some 69 per cent. of the entire number employed. It is, indeed, a matter of congratulation that the work of the schools, especially the primary teaching, is falling more and more to the care of women.

The Republican State convention of 1882, by an overwhelming majority endorsed woman suffrage, which action the Lincoln W. S. A. promptly recognized as follows:

WHEREAS, The Republican party of the State of Kansas, by and through its chosen representatives in the Republican State convention at Topeka, August 9, 1882, did, by an overwhelming majority, pledge itself to the support of the principle of woman suffrage by the following:

Resolved, That we request the next legislature to submit such an amendment to the constitution of the State as will secure to woman the right of suffrage. And,

WHEREAS, By this action the Republican party of Kansas has placed itself in line with the advanced thought of the times in a manner worthy a great political party of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, thereby proving itself worthy the respect and confidence of the women of the State; therefore,

Resolved, That the Lincoln Woman Suffrage Association, in behalf of the women of Kansas, does hereby express thanks to the Republican party for this recognition of the political rights of the women of the State, and especially to the Hon. J. C. Root of Wyandotte, Hon. Hackney of Winfield, Col. Graves of Montgomery, and Gen. Kelly, for their able and fearless support of the measure, and to each and every member of the convention who voted for it.

In 1883, Senator Hackney introduced a bill of which we find the following in the Topeka Capital of that date:

Senate bill No. 46, being Senator Hackney's, an act to provide for the submission of the question of female suffrage to the women of Kansas, was taken up, the reading thereof being greeted with applause. It provides that at the general election in 1883 the women of the State shall decide, by ballot, whether they want suffrage or not. Senator Hackney made an address to the Senate upon the bill, saying he believed in giving women the same rights as men had. The last Republican platform declared in favor of woman suffrage, and those Republicans who opposed the platform said they believed the women of the State should have their say about it; the Democratic platform said the same as the dissenters from the Republican. Several humorous amendments were made to the bill. Senator Kelley favored the bill because there were a great many women in the State who wanted to vote. He hoped the Senate would not be so ungallant as to vote the bill down. Senator Sluss moved the recommendation be made that the bill be rejected. Carried.

The Republican State convention of 1884 ignored the woman suffrage question. The Anti-monopoly (Greenback) party State convention, of August 1884, placed in its platform the following:

That we believe the advancing civilization of the past quarter of the nineteenth century demands that woman should have equal pay for equal work, and equal laws with man to secure her equal rights, and that she is justly entitled to the ballot.

Miss Fanny Randolph of Emporia, was nominated by acclamation for State superintendent of public instruction, by this convention. The Prohibition State convention, in session in Lawrence, September 2, 1884, placed the following plank in its platform:

We believe that women have the same right to vote as men, and in the language of the Republican State platform of two years ago, we request the next legislature to submit such an amendment to the constitution of the State as will secure to woman the right of suffrage.

This year we sent from Lincoln a petition with 175 names asking for a resolution recommending to congress the adoption of the sixteenth amendment. The results of the election of 1884, showed quite a gain for women in county offices. There are now eleven superintendents of public instruction, several registers of deeds, and county clerks. The number of lawyers,[482] physicians, notaries public, principals of schools, members of school-boards in cities and school districts, is rapidly increasing, as is also the number of women who vote in school-district elections. Miss Jessie Patterson, who ran as an independent candidate for register of deeds in Davis county, beat the regular Republican nominee 286 votes, and the Democratic candidate 299 votes.

The work of organizing suffrage societies has also progressed, though not as rapidly as it should, for want of speakers and means to carry it on. Through the efforts of Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Salina, vice-president of the State society, several new and flourishing clubs have been formed this summer in Saline county, so that it is probably now the banner county in Kansas. The Lincoln society is preparing to hold a fair in September, for the benefit of the State association, which will hold its next annual convention in October. Suffrage columns in newspapers are multiplying and much stress is placed upon this branch of work. On July 18, a convention was held to organize the Prohibition party in Lincoln county. A cordial invitation was extended to women to attend. Eight were present, and many more would have been had they known of it. I was chosen secretary of the convention, and Mesdames Ellsworth and Goff were appointed upon the platform committee, and several of the central committee are women. The position of the new party upon the question may be inferred from the following clauses in its platform:

Resolved, By the Prohibition party of Lincoln county, Kansas, in convention assembled, that the three vital issues before the people to-day are prohibition, anti-monopoly, and woman suffrage.

Resolved, That we believe in the political equality of the sexes, and we call on the legislature to submit such an amendment to the people for adoption or rejection, to the constitution of the State as will secure to women equal political rights.

Later the convention nominated me for register of deeds, and Dr. Sallie A. Goff for coroner. I immediately engaged Miss Jennie Newby of Tonganoxie, member of the executive committee and State organizer of the Prohibition party of Kansas, to make a canvass of the county with me in the interest of the party and the county ticket. We held ten meetings and at all points visited made converts to both prohibition and woman suffrage, though nothing was said about the latter. There were two men on the ticket; one of them received more votes than Dr. Goff and I did, and the other fewer. Emma Faris ran independently for register of deeds in Ellsworth county and received a handsome vote. It is no longer a matter of much comment for a woman to run for an office in Kansas.

Mrs. Gougar came again to Kansas in June to attend the third annual meeting of the Radical Reform Christian Association, and spent a month lecturing on woman suffrage and temperance.

January 15, 16, 1885, the annual meeting of the State society was held at Topeka. Large and enthusiastic audiences greeted Mrs. Gougar on this, her third visit to Kansas. She remained at the capital for several days, and largely through her efforts with members of the legislature special committees were voted for in both Houses to consider the interests of women. The measure was carried in the House by a vote of 75 to 45.[483] In the Senate it was a tie, 19 to 19. The new committee[484] through its chairman, George Morgan of Clay, reported in favor of a bill for municipal suffrage. It was so low on the calendar that there was no hope of its being reached, but a motion was made to take it out of its regular course, which was lost by 65 to 52.

The second annual meeting of the State society was held at Salina, October 28, 29, 1885. Mrs. Laura M. Johns gave the address of welcome, to which Mrs. Anna C. Wait, the president, responded. "Mother Bickerdyke,"[485] who followed Sherman's army in its march to the sea, was present and cheered all with her stirring words of the work of women in the war.[486] Her introduction was followed with applause and the earnest attention to her remarks showed in what high esteem she is held. She said that half the work of the war was done by women, but she made no complaint, indeed no mention, of the fact that these women had never been pensioned.

As it may add force to some facts already stated to have them repeated by one in authority, we give the following letter from the secretary of the Kansas Historical Society:

KANSAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Topeka, Nov. 26, 1885

MISS SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Rochester, N. Y.:

My Dear Friend:—In answer to your request for information upon certain points bearing upon the subject of woman suffrage in Kansas, I give the following:

The women avail themselves quite generally of their privilege of voting at the annual and special school district meetings, at which district officers are elected, and all questions of taxes and expenditures are voted on and settled. Women are, in many instances, elected members of the board of school directors, and thus are charged with the duty of employing teachers, with the supervision of the schools, and with the general management of the affairs of the district. Women vote on the question of the issue of school district bonds, and thus they take part in deciding whether new school houses shall be built and the property of the districts be pledged for the future payment of the cost of the same.

In the chartered cities women do not generally vote for school officers although, under the constitution, it is believed they have the right to do so, and in one or more instances I am informed they have done so, without the right being contested. In cities, school officers are elected at general elections for other city officers, for which women are not permitted to vote, and as they cannot vote for all they generally do not choose to vote for any. Women do not vote for either city, county, or State superintendents, and it is not considered that under our constitution they have the right to do so.

In 1884, there were 4,915 women teaching in the State, and 1,936 men. The average monthly wages of women was $32.85, and of men, $40.70. There are at present twelve women holding the office of county superintendent of public schools in the State. In 72 counties the office is filled by men. Thus, of the 84 organized counties of the State, one-seventh of the school superintendents are women, who generally prove to be competent and efficient, and the number elected is increasing.

In one county, Harper, a woman holds the office of county clerk. A young woman was recently elected to the office of register of deeds, in Davis county. It is conceded that these two offices can very appropriately be filled by women; and now that the movement has begun, no doubt the number of those elected will increase at recurring elections. Already, in numerous instances, women are employed as deputies and assistants in these and other public offices.

The participation of women in school elections and their election to membership of school district boards, are resulting in a steady growth of sentiment in favor of woman suffrage, generally. It is seen that in the decision of questions involving the proper maintenance of schools, and the supplying of school apparatus, women usually vote for liberal and judicious expenditures, and make faithful school officers. Their failures are not those of omission, as is so frequently the case with men holding these offices. If they err in judgment, it is from a lack of that business information and experience which women as non-voters have had little opportunity to acquire, but which, under our Kansas system is now rapidly being supplied.

Among the influences tending to increase the suffrage sentiment in Kansas, may be mentioned those growing out of the active part women are taking in the discussion of political, economical, moral and social questions, through their participation in the proceedings of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the State Temperance Union, the Woman's Social Science Association, the Kansas Academy of Science, the Grange, the State and local Teachers' Associations, and many other organizations in which women have come to perform so prominent a part. In these organizations, and in the part they take in discussions, they show their capacity to grapple with the political, social, and scientific problems of the day, in such a manner as to demonstrate their ability to perform the highest duties of citizenship. Still the chief influence which is bringing about a growth of opinion in favor of woman suffrage in Kansas, comes from what has now become the actual, and I may say, the popular and salutary practice of woman suffrage at school district meetings. It is seen that the reasons which make it right and expedient for women to vote on questions pertaining to the education of their children, bear with little, if any, less force upon the propriety of their voting upon all questions affecting the public welfare.

I think I may truly say to you that the tendencies in Kansas are to the steady growth of sentiment in favor of woman suffrage. This is so apparent that few of those even who do not believe in its propriety or expediency now doubt that it will eventually be adopted, and the political consequences fully brought to the test of experience.

Yours sincerely, F. G. ADAMS.

The greatest obstacle to our speedy success in this State, as elsewhere, is the ignorance and indifference of the women themselves. But the earnestness and enthusiasm of the few, in their efforts from year to year, cannot be wholly lost—the fires kindled by that memorable campaign of 1867 are not dead, only slumbering, to burst forth with renewed brilliancy in the dawn of the day that brings liberty, justice, and equality for woman.

FOOTNOTES:

[475] In the centennial year, when protests were in order, the following was sent to the National Association at Philadelphia, describing the manner in which a lady eighty-four years old celebrated her birthday:

"NEUTRAL STATION, Kansas, July 17, 1876.

"DEAR SISTERS: Two days ago, on Saturday, the 15th, as has been usual for three or four years, a company of our friends and neighbors met at our house to celebrate my eighty-fourth birthday. We had a pleasant time. Some pieces, composed for the occasion, were read, and a clergyman made some appropriate remarks. I improved the opportunity to obtain the names of the ladies present, and succeeded with all, old and young, except one who was afraid it would get her into a trap; but with the rest it needed but little electioneering beside reading your advertisement to secure their names. We, as a neighborhood, are ignorant on the subject. I solicited assistance pecuniarily, and send you what I can, with a word of encouragement still to work and wait, and my earnest prayer for your final success.

ELSIE STEWART."

The other signatures were: Henrietta L. Miller, Mrs. Julia A. Ingraham, Mrs. Hollet, Mrs. Lottie Griffin, Selinda Miller, Celina Lake, Mollie Yeates, Betsey J. Corse, Mary G. Hapeman, Mrs. Maggie Clark, Miss Elsie Miller, Louie Ingraham, Malura Hickox, C. A. Eddy, Anna Lowe, Charlotte H. Butler.

[476] President, Mrs. Mary Maberly; Secretary, Miss Lillie M. Hull; Treasurer, Mrs. Emma H. Johns; and an able executive committee, of which Mrs. E. M. Alden, Mrs. Emma Faris, Mrs. Mattie McDowell and Bertha H. Ellsworth, who was then teaching there, were members.

[477] Arkansas City Suffrage Club, with Mrs. M. B. Houghton, President; Mrs. E. T. Ayers, Vice-President; Miss Gertrude Fowler, Secretary, and Mrs. F. Daniels, Treasurer; also one at Winfield, county-seat of Cowley county, with Mrs. J. Cairns, President; Mrs. M. R. Hall, Secretary, and Mrs. E. D. Garlick, Treasurer; and vice-presidents from each of the churches, as follows: Mesdames P. P. Powell, G. Miller, M. Burkey and J. C. Fuller.

[478] President, Mrs. Hetta P. Mansfield, Winfield; Vice-President-at-Large, Mrs. Anna C. Wait, Lincoln; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Bertha H. Ellsworth, Lincoln; Recording Secretary, Miss Georgiana Daniels, Eureka; Treasurer, Mrs. D. A. Millington, Winfield; Chaplain, Rev. S. S. Cairns, Winfield; Vice-Presidents and Executive Committee, Mrs. Judge Griswold, Leavenworth; Miss Sarah Hurtsel, Columbus; Mrs. Anna Taylor, Wichita; Miss Myra Willets, Independence; Mrs. W. P. Roland, Cherryvale; Judge Lorenzo Westover, Clyde; Mr. V. P. Wilson, Abilene; Hon. Albert Griffin, Manhattan; Mrs. A. O. Carpenter, Emporia; Mrs. Noble Prentis, Atchison; Mrs. S. S. Moore, Burden; Mrs. Emma Faris, Carnerio; Mrs. Houghton and Mrs. Farrer, Arkansas City; Mrs. Finley, Topeka.

[479] The towns visited were: Beloit, Lincoln Center, Wilson, Ellsworth, Salina, Solomon City, Minneapolis, Cawker City and Clyde. The officers of the Topeka society were: President, Mrs. Priscilla Finley; Secretary, Mrs. E. G. Hammon; Treasurer, Mrs. Sarah Smith. The officers of Beloit were: President, Mrs. H. Still; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. J. M. Patten, Mrs. M. Vaughan; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. F. J. Knight; Recording Secretary, Mary Charlesworth; Treasurer, Mrs. M. Bailey. At Salina, Mrs. Johns and Mrs. Christina Day are the officers.

[480] The women of Kansas should never forget that to the influence of Mrs. Nichols in the Constitutional convention at Wyandotte, they owe the modicum of justice secured by that document. With her knitting in hand, she sat there alone through all the sessions, the only woman present, watching every step of the proceedings, and laboring with members to so frame the constitution as to make all citizens equal before the law. Though she did not accomplish what she desired, yet by her conversations with the young men of the State, she may be said to have made the idea of woman suffrage seem practicable to those who formed the constitution and statute laws of that State.—[E. C. S.

[481] See compiled laws of Kansas, 79, page 378, chapter XXXIII.

[482] Miss Flora M. Wagstaff of Paoli was among the first to practice law in Kansas. In 1881, Ida M. Tillotson of Mill Brook, and in 1884, Maria E. DeGeer were admitted.

[483] The names of representatives voting for the committee stand as follows: Yeas—Barnes, Beattie, Bollinger, Bond, Bonebrake, Brewster, Buck, Butterfield, Caldwell, Campbell, Carter, Clogston, J. B. Cook of Chetopa, H. C. Cook of Oswego, Collins, Cox, Currier, Davenport, Dickson, Edwards, Faulkner, Gillespie, Glasgow, Gray, Grier, Hargrave, Hatfield, Hogue, Hollenshead, Holman, Hopkins, Hostetler, Johnson of Ness City, Johnson of Marshall, Johnson of Topeka, Johnson (Speaker of the House), Kelley of Cawker City, King, Kreger, Lawrence, Lewis, Loofburrow, Lower, McBride, McNall, McNeal, Matlock, Maurer, Miller, Moore, Morgan of Clay, Morgan of Osborne, Mosher, Osborn, Patton, Pratt, Reeves, Rhodes, Roach, Roberts, Slavens, Spiers, Simpson, Smith of McPherson, Smith of Neosho, Stewart, Stine, Sweezy, Talbot, Vance, Veach, Wallace, Wentworth, Wiggins, Willhelm—75. The names of senators were: Yeas—Bowden, Congdon, Donnell, Edmunds, Granger, Hicks, Humphrey, Jennings, M. B. Kelley, Kellogg, Kimball, Kohler, Pickler, Ritter, Rush, Shean, Sheldon, White, Young—19.

[484] The Committee on the Political Rights of Women, granted by the House, were: George Morgan of Clay, George Seitz of Ellsworth, David Kelso of Labette, F. W. Rash of Butler, W. C. Edwards of Pawnee, F. J. Kelley of Mitchell, W. H. Deckard of Doniphan.

[485] The speakers were: Rev. Amanda May (formerly of Indiana), Mrs. Martha L. Berry, Mrs. Ada Sill, Mrs. Colby, Dr. Addie Kester, Mrs. M. D. Vale, Rev. C. H. Rogers, Mrs. De Geer, Miss Jennie Newby. Officers: President, Mrs. Anna C. Wait of Lincoln; Vice-President, Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Salina; Treasurer, Mrs. Martia L. Berry of Cawker City; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. B. H. Ellsworth of Lincoln; Recording Secretary, Mrs. Alice G. Bond of Salina.

[486] When Miss Anthony and I went through Kansas in 1867 we held an afternoon and evening meeting in Salina. Our accommodations at the hotel were wretched beyond description. Mother Bickerdyke was just preparing to open her hotel but was still in great confusion. Hearing of our dismal quarters she came and took us to her home, where her exquisitely cooked food and clean beds redeemed in a measure our dolorous impressions of Salina. Our meetings were held in an unfinished church without a floor, the audience sitting on the beams, our opponents (two young lawyers) and ourselves on a few planks laid across, where a small stand was placed and one tallow candle to lighten the discussion that continued until a late hour. Being delayed the next day at the depot a long time waiting for the train we held another prolonged discussion with these same sprigs of the legal profession. We had intended to go on to Ellsworth, but hearing of trouble there with the Indians we turned our faces eastward. Mother Bickerdyke and her thrilling stories of the war are the pleasant memories that still linger with us of Salina.—[E. C. S.



CHAPTER LI.

COLORADO.

Great American Desert—Organized as a Territory, February 28, 1860—Gov. McCook's Message Recommending Woman Suffrage, 1870—Adverse Legislation—Hon. Amos Steck—Admitted to the Union, 1876—Constitutional Convention—Efforts to Strike Out the Word "Male"—Convention to Discuss Woman Suffrage—School Suffrage Accorded—State Association Formed, Alida C. Avery, President—Proposition for Full Suffrage Submitted to the Popular Vote—A Vigorous Campaign—Mrs. Campbell and Mrs. Patterson of Denver—Opposition by the Clergy—Their Arguments Ably Answered—D. M. Richards—The Amendment Lost—The Rocky Mountain News.

That our English readers may appreciate the Herculean labors that the advocates of suffrage undertake in this country in canvassing a State, they must consider the vast territory to be traveled over, in stages and open wagons where railroads are scarce. Colorado, for example, covers an area of 104,500 square miles. It is divided by the Rocky Mountains running north and south, with two hundred lofty peaks rising thirteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, and some still higher. To reach the voters in the little mining towns a hundred miles apart, over mountains such as these, involves hardships that only those who have made the journeys can understand. But there is some compensation in the variety, beauty and grandeur of the scenery, with its richly wooded valleys, vast parks and snow-capped mountains. It is the region for those awake to the sublime in nature to reverently worship some of her grandest works that no poet can describe nor artist paint. Here, too, the eternal struggle for liberty goes on, for the human soul can never be attuned to harmony with its surroundings, especially the grand and glorious, until the birthright of justice and equality is secured to all.

For a history of the early efforts made in the Centennial State to secure equal rights for women, we are indebted to Mrs. Mary G. Campbell and Mrs. Katharine G. Patterson, two sisters who have been actively interested in the suffrage movement in Colorado, as follows:

In 1848, while those immortal women whose names will be found on many another page of the volume in which this chapter is included, were asking in the convention at Seneca Falls, N. Y., that their equal membership in the human family might be admitted by their husbands, fathers and sons, Colorado, unnamed and unthought of, was still asleep with her head above the clouds. Only two mountain-tops in all the-world were nearer heaven than hers, and they, in far Thibet, had seen the very beginnings of the race which, after six thousand years, had not yet penetrated Colorado. Islanded in a cruel brown ocean of sand, she hid her treasures of gold and silver in her virgin bosom and dreamed, unstirred by any echoes of civilization. When she woke at last it was to the sound of an anvil chorus—to the ring of the mallet and drill, and the hoarse voices of men greedy only for gold.

In 1858, when the Ninth National Convention of women to demand their legal rights was in session in New York, there were only three white women in the now rich and beautiful city of Denver. Still another ten years of wild border life, of fierce vicissitudes, of unwritten tragedies enacted in forest and mine, and Colorado was organized into a territory with a population of 5,000 women and 25,000 men.

The first effort for suffrage was made in 1870, during the fifth session of the legislative assembly, soon after General Edward McCook was sent out by President Grant to fill the gubernatorial chair. In his message to the legislature, he promptly recommended to the attention of its members the question of suffrage for woman:

Before dismissing the subject of franchise, I desire to call your attention to one question connected with it, which you may deem of sufficient importance to demand some consideration at your hands before the close of the session. Our higher civilization has recognized woman's equality with man in all respects save one—suffrage. It has been said that no great reform was ever made without passing through three stages—ridicule, argument, and adoption. It rests with you to say whether Colorado will accept this reform in its first stage, as our sister territory of Wyoming has done, or in the last; whether she will be a leader or a follower; for the logic of a progressive civilization leads to the inevitable result of a universal suffrage.

This was the first gun of the campaign, and summoned to the field various contending forces, armed with ridicule, argument, or an optimistic diplomacy, urging an immediate surrender of the ground claimed. Bills favoring the enfranchisement of women were discussed both in the Territorial Council Chamber and in the lower House of the legislature. The subject was taken up by the press and the people, and not escaping its meed of ridicule, was seriously dealt with by both friend and enemy. Perhaps the western champions of woman's recognition as an intelligent part of the body politic were brought to understand the full meaning of her disabilities by their own experiences as territorial minors. Certain it is that the high spirit of the citizens of Colorado chafed intolerably under the temporary limitations of accustomed rights of sovereign manhood. The federal government, in the capacity of regent, sent to these territorial wards their officers and governors and fixed the rate of their taxation without full representation. These wards were indeed empowered, as were the people of their sister territories, to elect a delegate to the national congress, whose opinions upon territorial matters were allowed expression in that body, but who could no more enforce there his convictions upon important measures, by a vote, than could the most intelligent woman of this territory upon the question of his election to represent her interests.

In the Colorado papers of those days of territorial tutelage, there appeared repeatedly most impatient protests against these humiliating conditions of citizenship. With the attainment of statehood in 1876 there came to the men of Colorado a restoration of their full rights as citizens of the Republic. According to the proscriptive usage, the humiliating conditions of citizenship without the ballot, remained to the women of the Centennial State; and those of their reenfranchised brothers who had felt most keenly their own unaccustomed restrictions, were without doubt the foremost advocates of the movement to secure the full recognition of women's rights.

The majority of the territorial legislative assembly of 1870 was unexpectedly Democratic, and almost as unexpected was the favor promptly shown by the Democratic members to the passage of the bill proposing woman suffrage. The measure was indeed characterized by the opposing Republicans, as "the great Democratic reform," and for weeks seemed destined to triumph through Democratic votes, in spite of the frivolous and serious opposition of the Republican minority, and the few Democratic members who deserted what then seemed the party policy upon this question. The pleas urged in advocacy of the new movement, as well as the protests urged against it, were substantially the same as were used in the East at that stage of the question. Accompanying them were the extravagancies of hope and fear incident to the early consideration of every suggested change in a long-accepted social order. An impossible Utopia was promised on the one hand no less confidently than was predicted upon the other a dire iconoclasm of the sacred shrine of long-adored ideals, as a consequence of simply granting to intelligent women a privilege justly their due. Both the derision and the adverse reasoning of the alarmists were well met by fearless friends, in Council and House. Bills looking to the removal of woman's disabilities were referred in each to a select committee for consideration, on January 19. The majority report to the House through the chairman of its special committee, M. DeFrance, was an able advocacy of the measure under consideration, while the adverse recommendation of the Council committee was accompanied by an excellent report by Hon. Amos Steck, setting forth clearly the reasons of the minority for their favorable views. After hearing the reports, both Houses went into committee of the whole for a free discussion upon the question.